Boral establishes West Melbourne plant as the anchor for metropolitan concrete network
Boral has committed to Melbourne’s future growth with a new chapter in concrete manufacturing opened. Our new, fully operational West Melbourne Concrete Plant is continuing Boral’s proud history of supplying Melbourne’s infrastructure demands over decades, replacing the former North Melbourne plant that was closed to make way for the new Melbourne Metro rail project.
The plant is ideally located to capture the growing Melbourne construction market and well-positioned to access the city’s vital arterial network. This enables Boral to maintain close proximity to infrastructure projects in the CBD and the wider metropolitan area such as supplying the nearby West Gate Tunnel Project and the burgeoning growth of the city’s western region. The plant is also close to the Port of Melbourne and Victoria’s rail freight hub.
The wet batch plant offers consistency of product that is desired by customers and can supply three concrete agitator trucks every three minutes. At full capacity, the plant can host 35 trucks on-site at any given time and guarantee security of supply of up to 2000m3 a day through the ability to store 4000 tonnes of sand and aggregates across 16 bins and 1000 tonnes of cementitious materials.
“West Melbourne represents a vital first step in renewing our broader Melbourne concrete network,” said Lloyd Wallace, Boral’s Executive General Manager – Southern Region.
“We intend to work through reinvestment in key sites across the city over the next few years. In the meantime, West Melbourne has substantially improved our production capabilities close to the Melbourne CBD itself and positions us well to service major infrastructure projects in the area.”
West Melbourne Concrete Plant is well-positioned to the Melbourne CBD and major arterials such as CityLink.
Delivering world-class safety performance central to our vision of delivering performance excellence and sustainable growth in Melbourne was a hallmark feature of the design and development of West Melbourne. A strong emphasis on safety resulted in a separation of cars, trucks and pedestrians. Located on 1.5 hectares, the size and shape of the industrial site allowed for single directional traffic flow for heavy vehicles, as well as the separation of light and heavy vehicles. These traffic management strategies are considered ‘best practice’ because they improve safety for all employees and limit the use of reversing beepers.
Social procurement was an important feature of the West Melbourne plant design. Through our collaboration with charity TRY Australia, young people including migrants, former youth justice system inmates and others who faced significant barriers to remaining in education or finding employment were given a work-ready opportunity. The team repurposed shipping containers into our batching office, lunchroom and amenities buildings, giving them exposure to practical, hands-on training while receiving support in literacy, numeracy and life skills also included nationally accredited building and construction qualifications. The West Melbourne project was an Award Finalist at the Social Enterprise Conference 2018. TRY Australia also presented the project to a global audience at the 2018 Social Enterprise World Forum in Edinburgh, Scotland, in 2018.
Boral’s effort in continual improvement included seeking to minimise environmental impacts and taking a socially responsible approach to how we operate. West Melbourne also contains underground tanks to store greywater, which is recycled and used for the concrete manufacturing process, installed dust extractors at the site and noise silencers on the cement silos. Boral also established bunds and planted native vegetation to ensure any possible run-off from the plant does not enter the neighbouring Dynon Road Tidal Canal and Wildlife Reserve. Precautionary measures were also introduced to protect the nearby Maribyrnong River from excess water.
Learn more about Boral Concrete products and how we can help you. Visit our Projects page to view our contribution to some of Australia's major infrastructure projects.